Fox in the Hen House? Insurance Commissioner Warned

By Jon Lender – Hartford Courant – May 24, 2017

Accused Of Trying To Influence Bill To Stop Drug Price Gouging

HARTFORD — Senate leaders warned Insurance Commissioner Katharine Wade Tuesday to drop what they described as her attempt to water down a proposed anti-price-gouging consumer bill in which Cigna Corp. — which employed her for two decades, and where her husband still works — has a stake.

“[P]lease accept this letter as an expression of our concern regarding your attempt to influence pending legislation in which Cigna, your former employer and your husband’s current employer, has a direct financial interest,” Sens. Martin Looney, D-New Haven, and Len Fasano, R-North Haven, told Wade in an unusually blunt letter.

Wade worked for Cigna for 21 years as a lobbyist and vice president. Gov. Dannel P.

Malloy named her to head the state Insurance Department in 2015, shortly after she left the Bloomfield-based company.

Her husband is a lawyer at Cigna.

Looney and Fasano told Wade that “we would have expected you to support legislation that improves public transparency regarding drug prices [and] protects consumers from secret price gouging. …

Therefore, we were surprised to learn that you interjected yourself into the legislative process in a manner that would benefit Cigna and other insurers who have WADE, B2

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